Read Online Sharky's Machine by William Diehl - Free Book Online Page B

problems.’
    Sharky’s face began to redden.
    ‘He’s a moron...’
    Jaspers cut him off again.
    ‘Are you deaf?’
    ‘Pardon?’
    ‘Deaf. Are you deaf? I said I am not interested in Tully. Tully was a mistake. It’s what happened after Tully that concerns me. You forgot everything. You panicked, forgot every regulation. You ignored the rules. Pro-ced-ure. There is pro-ced-ure to be followed.’ Jaspers sat back in his chair and stared across the desk at Sharky, who felt suddenly like a grammar school boy called before the principal. It was humiliating and Sharky could not abide humiliation.
    ‘Look, do I have any say at all? I mean, do I get to tell my end of this?’
    Don’t be insolent,’ Jaspers snapped.
    ‘Insolent! Insolent, shit.’ He stood up and walked to the edge of the desk. Jaspers’s face was scarlet with rage. ‘Lemme tell you something, Captain. I spent three months on that goddamn machine. Three months setting it up, kissing that miserable bastard’s ass so I could make that buy.’
    ‘Sharky!’ Jaspers roared.
    ‘No, I’m gonna finish this. ThIs wasn’t any ordinary coke buy, y’know. Creech was leading me upstairs, to his man. We were talking coke in pounds. Pounds! He couldn’t handle that big a thing; he had to go to the supplier. That’s who I was after, High Ball’s connection. I had to. It couldn’t leak out, see. One leak —‘
    ‘How dare you?’ Jaspers was enraged now. ‘What in God’s name possessed you? A gunfight on a crowded bus.’
    Jesus, is that all that mattered? The bus ? Sharky started to explain what happened. That he had taken a chance and looked at High Ball Mary, that everyone behind the pusher had dropped to the floor, that he was using soft-nose bullets. It wasn’t some irresponsible snap decision; he didn’t have any choice. But he said nothing. What the hell, all The Bat cared about was the goddamn bus.
    ‘This kind of press is disastrous,’ The Bat was saying.
    ‘Press? For Christ’s sake, what was I supposed to do, kiss his ass and wave goodbye?’
    ‘I ought to break you. For insubordination alone. I ought to give you six-and-six and put you back ‘where you belong, in a blue-and-white on Auburn Avenue. You’ll never learn, will you? You have no respect for anyone.’
    ‘Captain, look, it happened too fast. All of a sudden there we were on a bus full of Christmas shoppers and he was bonkers, totally around the bend, threatening to kill kids and all. I had a clean shot and I took it. What the hell else is there to say about it?’
    ‘Three clean shots, apparently.’
    ‘Okay, I hit him three times. I didn’t want to take a chance that maybe he squeezes one off and wastes some old lady on the way home to dinner. Ot some kid. I took him Out. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?’
    Jaspers drummed his desk with his fingers. He glared at Sharky. God, how he despised these young hotshots. Headline hunters.
    ‘I don’t want any more headline hunting,’ he said.
    ‘That’s what it’s going down as, hunh? Headline hunting? Everybody’s scared shitless of the papers.’
    ‘You’ve tried my patience with your insubordination, Sharky.’
    ‘Captain, I’m asking to be treated fairly. No more consideration than we give to some bum in the drunk tank, that’s what I’m asking for.’
    ‘I’ll give you hell and call it whatever you want to call it. Right now you’re about as useful to Narcotics as a paraplegic.’
    ‘I don’t.. .‘ Sharky started to say something and stopped. He stared at the cold eyes. The bottom of his foot began to itch. He tried grinding his foot into the carpet. The itch grew worse. He tried to ignore it. Tears began welling up in his eyes. Christ, he thought, the son of a bitch is going to think he’s got me crying. Sharky sat down, unzipped his boot and pulled it off, frantically scratching the bottom of his fooL His big toe stuck through a hole in his sock.
    Jaspers stared at him, appalled.
    ‘What